In the novel Frankenstein, author Marry Shelley depicts character Victor Frankenstein as a scientist with a strong passion for forbidden knowledge and finding the answers to life through science. Though his intentions are good this leads him to the creation of a monster. Throughout the novel Frankenstein is constantly encountered by obstacles that test his passions for science and responsibility for his creation. For Victor it seems that the choice to abandon the monster is the easier path, rather than taking care of his creation. In the beginning of the book, right after the creation of the monster, Victor fled his home to get away from the creature, only to return and find that it had escaped.
Frankenstein wanted to recreate his mother, but instead he made a creature comprised of the socially repressed elements of Frankenstein (the monster) and his wish for his mother. Frankenstein's creature comprises all of the unacceptable traits of humans, those we usually suppress. These traits may actually be a representation of those traits that Frankenstein wishes he had. Mary Shelley tries to humanize the position of the impossible monster to imagine what it would be like for a monster to sustain personhood when everybody around him treats him as an utterly outcast to society. Shelley is trying to show that the creature is not inherently monstrous, but
This was done through Victor trying to bring Elizabeth back to life after the monster killed her. This was not found in the book and makes Victor seem insane. In the end of the scene Elizabeth kills herself because she cannot choose between Victor and the monster. The way the monster initially killed Elizabeth varied from the book though because Shelley said, “[t]he murderous mark of the fiend’s grasp was on her neck” (Shelley 173). The movie version tried to make it seem more dramatic by having the monster (played by Robert De Nero) rip Elizabeth’s heart out of her chest.
Once the monster knows that Victor will not make his a friend, the creation says, "'from that moment [he] declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against [Frankenstein] who had formed [him] and sent [him] forth to this insupportable misery'" (121). Victor could have saved his loved ones but his fear caused the death of others. The Creation reaches a point where he has had enough of Victor and says, "'You can blast my other passions, but revenge remains -- revenge, henceforth dearer than light of food! I may die, but first you, my tyrant and tormentor, shall curse the sun that gazes on your misery'" (153). The Monster had done nothing to deserve what Victor has put him through, so the fact that the Creation turns on Victor was perfectly normal.
The Two Monsters of Frankenstein The main ingredients in creating a monster, in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, are obsession, selfishness, and doomed loneliness. Shelley creates not one but two monsters in the novel. Shelley shows Victor as the selfish and obsessed monster that created a living creature dooming it to forever loneliness. Shelley's other monster is the creature that Victor made that is rejected by everybody due to his ugliness. Victor is a monster by selfishly remaining quiet about the creature as more and more lives are taken.
This leads to the monster’s threats toward Victor to create a female creature for him or he will keep on causing tragedy in Victor’s life. Since the companion is never actually made the monster goes on causing tragedy in the novel such as the death of Elizabeth. To avoid all of this tragedy, I would have selected a novel that gave the creature hope, such as Beauty and the Beast. This is about a Beast who falls in love with a human named Belle. Despite the Beast’s ugliness and anger, Belle falls in love with him anyway.
Frankenstein was not a good creator, he was actually trying desperately to kill his monster he made. Frankenstein said, “I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction” (Shelley 191). In a movie version of this story, the monster asks, “Did you ever consider the consequences of your actions? You made me, and you left me to die” (Frankenstein). Here the creature shows his feelings about his creator.
Mary Shelley uses many language devices to portray conflict in the novel Frankenstein. In chapter 5, Mary Shelley uses alliteration to convey to the reader the emotional conflict the monster is forced to face. Victor finally finishes his creation and observes its appearance: “I beheld the wretch -- the miserable monster who I created”. This suggests to the reader that Victor is not pleased with his creation as he calls him a “monster”; the word “monster” makes the reader visualize a horrendous, spine-chilling, eerie creation creating a dark ambience. Furthermore, the author uses feelings to describe the monster.
Domestic affection is the sense of belonging and love one feels when people are accepted by family and friends. Shelly believes that when people loses this affection they begin to make immoral decisions and lose their sense of humanity, and this is when they become truly monstrous. When Frankenstein is read from this perspective, the creature isn’t the only monster in the story. Robert Walton, captain of the ship, also has the potential to be monstrous, and so too do victor, the general population, and the social institutions within the world of Frankenstien. Through the actions committed in the play, Victor Frankenstein becomes one of the most monstrous characters in the story.
How could feminist ideas enhance your understanding of a chosen literary text? Within Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein there are many aspects that are open to feminist reading. This essay will focus upon the monster as an embodiment of female intellect and creativity, showing how the monsters treatment by his creator leads him to violent outbursts of frustration mirrored with the emergence of the female gothic. It will also analyze the female characters within the text and how the contrast between them highlights Shelley’s frustration in regards to the female position within society. The story shows that Dr Frankenstein created his monster in order to indulge in his want to be like a god, a bringer of life so “a new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me”[1] this creation of a being who’s natures were owed to man from a feminist perspective can be considered a representation of female intellect and intelligence.